B.Phil. students may integrate diverse topics, fields, and methodological approaches in their studies. These could include, but are absolutely not limited to:
- Topics – Social justice and equity, media and technology, health and wellness, environment and sustainability, globalization, innovation
- Fields – Arts (performance, visual, musical), natural science (biology, math, physics), social science (psychology, sociology, economics), humanities (history, literature, philosophy), business (entrepreneurship, finance, marketing), engineering
- Methodological approaches – Experiments, observation, survey, creative expression, archival research, interpretive analysis, case study
Examples of majors students have created include:
- Community Leadership
- Sociological Impacts of Technology Change
- Food Studies
- Social Dynamics
- Applied Ethics
- Environmental Energy Engineering
- Non-Profit Management
- Historic Preservation of Architecture
- Ethnobotany
- Global Media Studies
- Intersections of Political Science, Religion, and Philosophy
- International Development and Africa
- Biblical Studies and Intercultural Communication
- Forest Conservation and Creative Writing
- Social Justice and Global Development
- 21st Century Education
- Social Entrepreneurship
Examples of capstone projects students have completed include: a guide to creating greener buildings at Penn State, developing an online platform connecting students in State College with students in China, a photomosaic and history of Black student protests, a case study of grassroots reconciliation in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, an experimental investigation of voice pitch variation in human mating, an interview study of veterans about military values, a philosophical analysis linking pragmatist theories of education to neuroscience, and much more.
See our alumni profiles for more detailed examples of recent projects.